Finally, I’m able to blog. Sorry guys, been caught up with the hustle-bustle of Christmas! Quite a lot has happened the past few days and let me tell you all about it. But before anything, thank you for all the greetings you’ve sent through email or comments here on my blog. I do hope you enjoyed the doggy Christmas card I sent I’ll try to make another one for New Year if I have time.

December 17 actually marked the first day of our unusual Christmas. Ever since my sister got sick, we’ve spent our Christmases only at home. Pretty boring really. It had always been a simple dinner with my uncle (who passed away two years back)â€”that’s it. Anyway, this year, we went to Ayala Alabang for a mini reunion and Christmas dinner.

On the 21st, I invited the Kaingin (a socially-oriented organization I used to belong to in collegeâ€”we tutored kids every Saturday in Baranggay Kaingin Dos) for caroling here as our company’s holiday outreach. My family really enjoyed the carols, but also made my mom quite sentimental.

Our Christmas Eve celebration is the most unusual. We had a pre-midnight Noche Buena in Ayala Alabang, but we had to leave around 11:30pm because my sister Joyce was becoming uneasy with the increasing number of people (she gets weird around many people due to her psychological condition). So there. For the first time as a family, we spent Christmas (midnight) on the road. Since it was a bit corny spending the rest of the night at home, we went to Manila and strolled around a little in Rizal Memorial Park.

Christmas Day we spent with my dad’s side of the family in Caloocan. In the evening, Marc with his mom and siblings visited us. Nothing spectacular, we just had a simple dinner and some wine.

We really did quite a lot this Christmas, and I can say this is probably one of the best I ever had… I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’ve just been so used to having a sad Christmas during the past few years. Or maybe because I’ve just been through so much that I’m finally beginning to learn to make the most out of what I have. My sister may be schizophrenic, my mom half-paralized due to a stroke, and my dad and I might have to work really really hard to make ends meetâ€”but at least we’re happy, and still a complete family

The weirdest thing happened to me early this morning. I woke up at 4am, but snoozed on again while waiting for Marc. I remember getting up and going to the bathroom, as well as texting Marc to send me a message when he’s outside the gate already so the dogs won’t start barking and waking up the entire street. I also remember snoozing off for about an hour after that, and waking up at the sound of Marc’s text message around 10 minutes after 5. But I really don’t remember texting Marc at 5:03am.

And yet I did. I checked my Sent messages folder, and there it was: the incoherent text message. It didn’t make any sense, and had a lot of garbled words. Marc was telling me to try and remember why I sent it, but I really couldn’t. Weird huh? And even weirder is that when I sat down and tried to remember my dream before I woke up, texting Marc WAS in my dream. I just couldn’t recall WHY I texted him in the dream. Well, since it’s really hard to make sense of dreams, it didn’t bother me much. It was the fact I was “sleep-texting” that freaked me out.

I’ve heard of sleepwalking. I never met anybody who does that but I’ve read about it. I’ve also experienced overhearing somebody sleep-talk (Marc and my grandma). I even admit that I try to reply to text messages while half-asleep. My messages are garbled, but I am aware that I was texting somebody. This is the very first instance that I really couldn’t remember even holding my phone and using it to send a text message.

Have you guys heard of a similar instance? You know, doing something during sleep and remembering nothing of what happened? This really spooked me out, to tell you the truth. It’s WEIRD. I never really thought I’d do something like that

Sorry I haven’t been blogging much this weekend. I’m actually beginning to feel the “Christmas party frenzy,” where we attend (and sometimes HAVE TO attend) Christmas parties left and right. Family reunions, class reunions, organization reunions, etc etc. I know this only happens once every year, but man, this is gluttony! LOL.

Marc and I went to Ayala Alabang with my family last weekend for a Christmas “mini-reunion” with my mom’s side of the family. The traffic we had to endure going there was HORRIBLEâ€”we left our house at around 5pm and we got there around 730pm. Two hours and a half on the road! Marc and my sister fell asleep going there, but I was too hungry to even think of going to sleep (all I could think of was FOOD). It was kinda my fault, really. I practically didn’t eat anything for breakfast and lunchâ€”I was saving my appetite for what Auntie Bubut prepared that night. Hehe. Anyway, my stomach wasn’t disappointedâ€”it was well worth the wait. The food was great, and even the preparation was good too. Take a look at PIXELIERA for a photo of my Aunt’s pretty dinner candles.

Marc and I also attended the party of his team at work the same weekend at that steak house in Libis. The nice waiters at the grillery gave us steak bone leftovers for my furry creatures. I’m telling you… It takes a good tip and shamelessness to ask for additional leftovers. Anyway, I didn’t have to do that… It was Marc’s manager who did. So there. My pets had a party too!

Sheero, Harry, Choknat and all of our other dogs feasted on steak bones. I left some in the freezer hoping that it would last until Christmas Eve (who said people are the only ones who can celebrate Christmas?!), but Dad gave it to them the very next day for breakfast. Oh well. There goes their Christmas Eve dinner.

But you know what? I’m still staying true to my no-pork diet. Not that I have a choice, really. I get dizzy whenever I try to eat some. I guess it’s like when I quit smoking. I just turned cold turkey on the habit, and had an occasional stick during parties for about a year or two. Now, I can’t stand the smell of it (I get into a coughing fit when I inhale cigarette smoke). Same with pork. Can’t eat it without feeling dizzy.

How about you guys? Attended any Christmas parties yet? I have been, but damn! Can you just imagine the calories from all the yummy food? Hehe.

I haven’t finished making the screenshots for the Adamson handout yet. I’ve been so immersed in my work that I can’t find time to even blog anymore. That’s the thing with me (and I’m sure it’s the same with some of you too), is that once I get started, it’s better to just continue until the drive subsides again. I didn’t really want to stop the momentum… I’ve been able to finish a lot of work.

Anyway, I’ve been trying to get some work out of the way before Christmas. It’s true that I work at home and thereby can still work even during Christmas parties that will be held here, but I really do want to start the year with a lighter load. Anyway, enough about work.

I’ve been drinking a lot of coffee lately. I don’t know why, but it has become a habit. I used to just drink coffee whenever I have an important deadline coming up the next day, but now, I drink it on a regular basisâ€”daily! And because of that, I’ve been finding harder to poo, not to mention having some bouts of palpitation sometimes. I also noticed that right after drinking coffee, my cough acts up again.

Do you guys know a good alternative to coffee? Something that will keep me alert, and yet with less caffeine to avoid the palpitation side effects? What do you drink during those late night studying or working? Suggestions please!

Marc accompanied me to Adamson University last Saturday where I gave a seminar on basic Actionscripting for the Web. And dang, we were an hour late! We got quite lost going to the school. Luckily, Rey (our contact) met us at an intersection after we traced back our route to the correct one.

What is it with men and directions???!!! We were really lost already before Marc FINALLY decided to ask for directions. He got pissed at me for shouting to ask directions from a jeepney driver who was a few feet away during a stop signalâ€”it’s embarrassing, he said. He didn’t take the guy’s direction seriously, he said it was pretty vague and that we should ask from a more “credible” source next time. I was, like, HELLO?!! Are you kidding me? Who’s more credible than a jeepney driver who follows the same route every day?

Ok. So when we were 100% totally lost already, that’s when he decided to stop and ask his “credible” source. Credible source my A$$! That security guard he asked didn’t even know where in the world she was. Heck, I had a bad feeling she might not even know which country she’s in. The only answer we ever got from her was, “ewan ko (I don’t know).” Holy crap. What a waste of saliva (we wasted saliva to tell her and explain where we’re going for about 5 minutes!). Sooo… Who had a more credible source now, huh, hon?? MEEEEEEH!!!!

Anyway, here are some photos Marc took of me and the students. I’m the one at the right corner wearing a black shirt.

And another one…

Marc was supposed to explain the deconstruction part but he was too tired (fine, fine!), so I got stuck blabbing for a couple of hours. The students were great, it was really quite easy explaining things to them. And they made us feel welcome too.

Anyway, I promised them a tutorial (kind of like a manual, actually) on the basics of Actionscripting. I will be posting updates about it in PIXELIERA under the Seminar : Adamson category. If you’re interested to download the tutorial and the source files, go right ahead.

I used to like eating pork… Sweet and Sour pork, “Lechon Kawali,” Pork Adobo, etc. etc. But beef had always been my preferrence. I would rather eat sirloin steak than porkloin.

But now I’ve stopped eating pork altogether. I don’t really know why, I just stopped. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see any pig getting butchered (the usual reason my vegetarian friends give me). And I haven’t gone totally vegetarian either. I still eat beef and other meats after all. Just not pork. Maybe it’s just a change in my food preferrence.

The most recent time I’ve tried to eat pork was last week, I got dizzy after a few bites. I had to lie down for a few minutes, my head was really spinning. Can that matchbox-sized pork really contain that much fat? Oh, well, maybe I’m just not used to it anymore.

Anyway, I’ve been enjoying fish more lately. Every now and then I’ll have beef or chicken, but not as often as the rate I’m eating fish, which is practically everyday. I’m no dietician, but I can tell you that I’ve been feeling healthier because of that. I’ve also lost a couple of pounds without feeling weak or anything like that. Hmm… maybe this is good, don’t you think?

The only ones who don’t seem to appreciate my “no pork diet” are my dogs, Sheero, Harry, and Choknat. They absolutely hate it. I would sometimes give them fish fillet, but most of the time, I really can’t due to the simple reason that they might choke in case they accidentally swallow a fish bone. And obviously, they don’t like being left out. Take a look at the picture I took of Sheero and posted at PIXELIERA (my art/photo blog). Poor baby can’t have a piece of my yummy fried fish

Iâ€™m finally done with customizing the template of my photo/art/design blog, PIXELIERA. I didnâ€™t originally intended for it to serve that purpose, but hey, people can change their minds Anyway, PIXELIERA would technically be my artsy dump site. And for this one, Iâ€™m allowing anybody download my workâ€”free of charge.

I donâ€™t really know what came over me and decided to make the contents free to everyone. Oh, well. Maybe because itâ€™s Christmas. Or maybe Iâ€™m hoping (*hint, hint*) that people will be grateful enough for the freebie stuff theyâ€™re getting to the point that theyâ€™ll be glad to CLICK on my Google Ads.

Anyway, do check PIXELIERA out when you have time. Iâ€™ve just started adding stuff there, so you wonâ€™t see much posts yet.

I’ve been quite busy with work, and I haven’t finished the handout I’ll be giving out on Saturday. I’ll be teaching basic Flash to a graduate class in Adamson University this weekendâ€”I have an outline, really, I already doâ€”but the content of the handout is still a bunch of copied and pasted gibberish taken from my notes for other seminars. I swear I’ll fix and finish this tomorrow, so they’ll still have time to photocopy it.

By the way, does anybody know how to get to Adamson? That’s another hurdle I’ll have to worry about. I’ll be coming from Quezon City, specifically from the Ateneo area.

I saw Chicken Little last Monday, by the way. Marc and I saw it with my sister and our help (who’s also kinda like my sister’s nanny too), Marlyn, on the same day I got my Narnia book. I guess I got too excited about the book that I totally forgot about the movie.

Chicken Little was cute. Stupid story, but hey, it’s good to watch something useless at least once in a while. Too much thinking can lead to insanity, you know. Anyway, it was nice. I’m a graphics afficionado, so I’m biased. I’ve always loved 3D animation (I’m a fan of Disney 3D). That duck character, Abby, looked horrendous. Haha. “Ugly ducking” is a polite way of describing her. Too bad she shares my name! LOL. She’s uglier than Sheero’s behind, but she was a delightful character. Very funny too.

I’m really not in the mood of giving a good review, but Chicken Little was quite a good movie. It’s definitely not for those who think thought-provoking movies are the only ones worth watching.

Anyway, I think I’ll rest for a sec. I feel like my brain is shrinking and beginning to float on air… I’ve been awake since 4am yesterday…. Zzzz…

No, I’m not a hobbit. At least, I don’t think I am. I’m short, but I don’t think I’m THAT short.

The “there” I’m talking about isn’t The Shire, nor is it the Middle Earth. This “there” I mean is a “place” where I am able to have peace of mind (no, it’s not the toilet), a state of semi-consciousness where my muse seemed to be most generous. What am I blabbing about, you ask. Ok. I’ll get to the point.

I’ve finally gotten around getting a copy of CS Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Marc bought it for me as a gift (I’m broke again, dang). Some might see this as no big dealâ€”it’s just a book. But for somebody who’s in the creative field, it can make a whole lot of difference.

I have only finished reading the first book of The Chronicles, and yet, I’m already drawn to its magical world where animals talk and a lion reigns supreme. This brief hour I have spent in Narnia was enough to awaken my creativity that have been slowly dwindling due to the pressures of deadlines and issues that are yet to be solved. I’m back to this “place” of magic, where my imagination is once again reeling back into action. Simply put, my muse is back.

A lot of things may have triggered this release of stress and creative enlightenment. I guess reading Narnia just sort of “activated” it. Nonetheless, I’m glad for it.

Don’t get me wrong, my Harry Potter books still help me “de-stress.” But reading an entirely new series is just different, if you know what I mean. If you don’t, well, ok